The pair exchanged genial greetings in the courtroom, but their reunion lasted only about an hour as Mladic repeatedly told judges he would not answer former Bosnian Serb President Karadzic's questions, citing ill health and an unwillingness to risk incriminating himself.

The brief hearing of the two alleged chief architects of Serb atrocities during Bosnia's 1992-95 war marked the first time the two men had been seen together publicly since the aftermath of the war during which 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered in Srebrenica.